Board to consider expansion 4-day week next month

The Emmet County Board of Commissioners will wait until its December meeting before formally deciding whether or not to expand its four-day work week to all non-court related departments.

Earlier this year the board approved the schedule shift at the planning, zoning, and construction resources office located on M-119.

According to assistant controller Marty Krupa the initial change, which expanded hours from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, was meant to give residents better access to county services outside of the normal workday.

"We feel the program is working out well and we want to expand it to all of our non-court related offices," he said.

County Controller Lyn Johnson said switching more departments to the new schedule would provide some savings on electricity, but that was not the primary goal.

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"The cost savings will be minimal, maybe 3 to 5 percent," he said.

Tammy Doernenburg, the assistant director at the county's M-119 office, said despite early misgivings by some of her colleagues, the four-day work week has been well received.

"There are no complaints I'm aware of from either employees or the public," she said. "We actually thought it was going to be harder than it has been. I guess it was fear of the unknown, but it's working out very well for everyone."

In addition to providing expanded hours, the county has also made a concerted effort to make more of its services available online. Johnson added that an upgrade to the county's Web site should be complete by the end of the year.

Krupa added that a better Web site would also benefit the county's residents and that it might provide some relief to the building's maintenance needs.

"Our goal is to save people trips into the county building," he said. "If the foot traffic in the building continues to decrease, at some point that will mitigate some of our building maintenance, especially in the winter months."